


In My Sights

by VelkynKarma



Series: Friends in Space Places [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A voltron fic that is actually about voltron, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Injury, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Season 2 compliant, Season 2 spoilers, Sharpshooter Lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 15:00:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10027004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VelkynKarma/pseuds/VelkynKarma
Summary: The latest Robeast is dangerous, and nothing they try to defeat it seems to be working. But Voltron's a team effort, and it's time to pull a new weapon out of its arsenal.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt #3 for Platonic VLD Week, Lions! (And Voltron by association)
> 
> Set between S2E4 and S2E5, in that perfect spot when they leave the Olkari but before Zarkon shows up to start chasing them all over the known universe.

Robeasts have never been what Lance would call pretty to look at, but this one by _far_ earns the award for ‘ugliest Robeast to date.’  
  
Like all Robeasts it’s massive, matching even Voltron’s impressive size. Unlike the others, this one looks like a huge insect of some kind, which makes its scale all the more revolting. Bugs aren’t supposed to be _this_ big. It’s like some weird, disgusting space scorpion, crawling along the ground on too many legs, and it has a diamond-shaped head covered in glittering compound eyes. Its forearms are huge claws, and its scorpion tail has some kind of energy cannon equipped, which it uses to great effect as it tries to blast Voltron out of the sky. The metal plating on it imitates thick insect carapace , and inside the cracks and crevices it glows a sickly yellow.  
  
Lance is pretty sure he’s not speaking _just_ as a leg of Voltron when he admits that he really, _really_ wants to step on this thing and squish it into paste. No bug has any business being this size or this scary.  
  
“Where do the Galra keep _getting_ these things?” Pidge shrieks in anger. “And how do they keep _finding_ us?”  
  
“We’ll figure that out later,” Shiro says. “Focus on bringing it down and protecting the towns.”  
  
Lance can feel Shiro’s focus through the Voltron bond, and settles in to follow his lead. Voltron is a joint effort between all of them, but as a rule Shiro’s mind tends to take point on the overall controls, while the others follow through on his commands to support them. Lance is fine with letting Shiro take charge, and keeps his own mind focused on his tasks as a leg of Voltron—namely providing support and propulsion every time they dive, dodge, or charge.  
  
It’s unfortunate that the Robeast had picked _now_ of all times to strike. They had been doing such a good job recruiting the Hek’koria to Team Voltron, following directly on the tail of the Olkari victory. The Hekkorites didn’t have much in the way of weaponry, but they were a farming people at heart, and had offered foodstuffs and the ability to provide support for the military half of the alliance. They had seemed to be swaying to the cause, but they were also a pacifist people by nature. A Robeast attack like this might scare them away from wanting to help…if it didn’t wipe out the population first.  
  
_No way,_ Lance thinks to himself. _We won’t let that happen. Shiro will come up with a way to beat this thing. He always does. We always win._  
  
He tries very hard to not think of the gaping, wide-mouthed Robeast they had fought at the Blade of Marmora outpost, and how they hadn’t defeated that thing at all on their own. How it had taken another person’s sacrifice to bring it down, because the paladins hadn’t been capable of finding a weakness in that monster and destroying it.  
  
_No._ No, this wasn’t like that. They would find a way this time. People were counting on them. They had to.  
  
Voltron swerves to the side as the Robeast fires its tail cannon, and the blast shoots out harmlessly into the distance, thankfully missing any landmarks or buildings. They’ve only just formed Voltron, and they haven’t had a chance to figure out what this thing’s quirks are—and it’s certainly got to have _something_ dangerous and weird it does, they always do. Until they figure it out, they can’t let the people here get hurt from this thing. Allura and Coran are using the Castle of Lions as a final defense for the Hekkorites’ main settlement, hovering over it with shields and weaponry at the ready, but it would be better if the paladins can keep this Robeast from even getting that far to begin with.  
  
“Try a test shot,” Shiro orders. “See if we can knock out that cannon. Doesn’t look like it has any range outside of that.”  
  
“On it,” Pidge acknowledges. Lance can feel Hunk’s mind intertwining with his own as they work together to halt Voltron’s movement and provide a firm stance for shooting, and they plant their legs on the ground. Pidge takes advantage of the split-second reaction time they share when their minds are merged in Voltron, and is already firing with the Green Lion’s laser cannon at the exact moment Voltron slides to a halt.  
  
It’s a perfect shot, aimed exactly for the tail cannon on the Robeast. It’s a perfect shot, but it doesn’t hit. A sickly yellow honeycomb of energy appears in a perfect bubble around the creature, exactly the same shade as the light they can see through the cracks in its carapace. Pidge’s laser blast crashes into the hexagonal yellow lines, and the energy disperses immediately all along the bubble. It crackles loudly, and sparks of electricity or magic or _something_ seem to roll along the surface of the bubble, but it holds and the laser blast disappears.  
  
“Oh, come _on,_ ” Lance complains. “Now they have _shields?_ How is this even fair?”  
  
“Lance, _move!_ ” Keith yells. The Robeast’s tail cannon swerves around to aim at them again, and Lance and Hunk hastily fire the leg thrusters at full power, rocketing them up and to the side. The laser cannon’s blast smashes into the ground, kicking up a spray of dirt and rubble and digging a furrow into the landscape savagely. But they don’t die. That’s a start.  
  
“Keep those blasts off the ground,” Shiro orders. “Stay in the air. The Hekkorites’ farmland is their lifeblood. If that gets destroyed these people are in trouble, _and_ Allura’s alliance isn’t going to work out.”  
  
“Maybe we can taunt it into the air after us?” Hunk offers. “Provoke and evade, like that one we fought on the Balmera?”  
  
“Good idea,” Shiro says. “Let’s give it a shot.”  
  
They try it, zipping into the air and swerving around the Robeast, dodging cannon blasts and staying just out of range to try and taunt the beast after them. Lance’s mind feels like it’s constantly twining with and adjusting to Hunk’s and Shiro’s with all the fast-paced movements. The legs can control some degree of direction, but Shiro’s got control of the wingplates and overall movement, and they need to be in sync to move effectively. It’s second nature by now, at least, but it still requires quick reflexes and fast adjustments to dodge without throwing the entire unit off. Unfortunately, for all their synchronized moves and well timed dodges, the Robeast doesn’t follow them. It remains stubbornly on the ground, and blasts at them repeatedly, waving its big pincer-claws angrily.  
  
“I don’t think it can fly,” Keith observes. “We can’t taunt it out to space or open air. If we go too far it starts wrecking the area around it instead.”  
  
“Agreed. Stay close,” Shiro says, sounding displeased. Lance can feel edges of frustration from Shiro very distantly, but it’s well controlled. Shiro always has a tight hold on his emotions in battle, even when the rest of them are panicking. When they’re not in combat it can get annoying, but in a Voltron fight that calmness seeping from Shiro to the others is a blessing.  
  
“If we can’t get it into the air then what do we do?” Lance asks, trying to lean on that calmness now. “It’s got shields, so how do we even _hit_ it?”  
  
“It’s not exactly like a particle barrier,” Pidge says, as they swerve around another laser blast in the air. “It didn’t seem to function the same way. It absorbed the laser energy. The particle barriers block it.”  
  
“It’s not like the cubes back on Olkari, is it?” Hunk asks nervously. “If it’s absorbing that energy?”  
  
“I don’t think so. It’s not shooting us back with our own abilities,” Pidge says. “It might just be to shield against laser cannons. If we get up close and personal maybe we can slice through the barrier instead. With the sword there won’t be any blast energy to disperse.”  
  
“Worth a shot. Form sword,” Shiro orders. Lance can distantly feel the shift of energy a moment later as Keith’s mind temporarily surges to the surface, and the sword forms in the Red Lion’s mouth. Lance and Hunk shift automatically to adjust to the new balance of the additional weapon, working in tandem with Keith’s mind as the latter gains a stronger edge of control in Voltron overall.  
  
They dodge another cannon blast, and launch forward. Lance provides whatever lunging and counterbalance power he can and he can feel Hunk doing the same, even as Keith works with them all to twist Voltron’s body and prepare a strike. The attack is full of strength and slashes directly at the Robeast’s head, going for an immediate kill.  
  
But the blazing sword never touches. The edge of the blade smashes into sickly yellow honeycomb of the Robeast’s shield, but it doesn’t cut through. The force of it is enough to send the entirety of Voltron vibrating as the reverberation travels up the Red Lion, and Lance winces at the clash of grinding metal around him. If he’s feeling it this bad in the legs, he doesn’t even want to think about how bad a headache Keith probably has from that.  
  
And it doesn’t end there. The hexagonal yellow shield seems to ripple outward where the sword connects with it, but it doesn’t fade or shatter, and it starts to crackle alarmingly once again. The noise grows louder, and Lance has a sudden prickling sensation all over his skin, like his hair’s standing on end, and—  
  
_“Look out!”_  
  
The crackling energy on the yellow shield seems to burst against the sword and the Red Lion, crawling up the metal and smashing into Voltron, and Lance feels pain. He gasps and struggles to maintain awareness, and for a moment it’s hard to tell where he is in the bond. Everyone is _hurting_ , but it’s coming most strongly from Keith; he can hear Keith screaming on the comms and _feel_ his mind on fire in his head. That’s bleeding into his mind, but Lance is hurting too, and so are the others, and he can’t tell the difference, there’s too much input everywhere—  
  
_“Lance, Hunk, get us out of here, now!”_ Shiro’s voice cuts through the confusion and the pain like a knife, and Lance starts. He can _hear_ pain in Shiro’s voice and feel it over their Voltron connection, but he can also feel Shiro wrestling it back and fighting to maintain awareness.  
  
It shocks them into action, and Lance hastily slams the control levers forward, reaching out to Blue with his mind. _Run. Hurry._  
  
They kick off against the shield and force their way back, but not before the Robeast reacts. It slices out with one of its massive claw arms at Voltron, and it’s not affected by its own shield. The metallic pincer passes though the yellow honeycomb of energy and plunges straight for Voltron’s core. Shiro manages to twist them enough to mitigate most of the attack, but the claw tip catches on one of the wingplates, and the plate goes spinning away to slam into the dirt half a mile distant. Voltron is thrown off balance and catapults wildly through the air, crashing into one of the Hekkorite fields and wiping out a full crop in less than ten seconds.  
  
Damn it.  
  
“Air, now,” Shiro orders, as Voltron staggers to its feet with difficulty. Lance groans as they move—he feels bruised all over after that fall—and he can feel that the others are the same, but they do what they can to follow orders. The right arm isn’t as responsive as the left, so Pidge uses the Green Lion to lever them up enough that Hunk and Lance can kick into the air. They wobble a little awkwardly with only one wingplate, but Voltron doesn’t really need it to fly; losing it just makes balance a little difficult. Lance can help manage it, and reaches out with his mind to work with Shiro on the necessary adjustments.  
  
It’s okay. He’s got this. That residual pain is already starting to fade for him, and he’s sore as hell but his mind is regaining control at least. They’re not out of the running yet. They can still do this.  
  
Lance really, _really_ hopes they can still do this.  
  
“Everyone okay?” Shiro asks. “Keith, you still with us, buddy?”  
  
Keith’s mind is weak, and his voice is faint as he rasps, “I…y-yes…I’m fine. But let’s….let’s not do that again.“  
  
“What _happened?”_ Lance asks incredulously.  
  
“It shocked us,” Pidge says, sounding angry. “It doesn’t have the same kind of feedback as the cubes did, but it looks like if we make contact it’s going to blast us right back using that shield. Keith probably got the worst of it since he was touching it directly with his Lion, but it definitely hit all of us.” Lance can hear the faint tremor of pain in her voice, and doesn’t blame her. That had _not_ been fun. “I would…not suggest trying to hit it directly again. That was a bad idea. Sorry, Keith.”  
  
“S’fine,” Keith says. His voice sounds hoarse, probably from screaming. Lance winces in sympathy. As jealous as he gets about Keith getting all the glory, there are times he definitely does not relish the thought of being an arm of Voltron. “But…how do we beat it?”  
  
“Keep your distance,” Shiro orders, as Voltron dodges aside from another cannon blast. “Stay in the air to draw its fire away from the landscape. We do not engage directly again. We need a way to beat this thing at range.”  
  
“We could try my cannon,” Hunk suggests. “Way back when we first got the Lions, I was able to break down the particle barrier on Sendak’s ship that was guarding their ion cannon by just blasting it for long enough that it shattered.”  
  
“That might work for a regular particle barrier, but there’s something different about this one,” Pidge argues. “It doesn’t just deflect energy, it looks like it’s absorbing it.”  
  
“Then maybe we can overcharge it,” Hunk says. “It’s got to have a limit, and it can’t discharge any energy back at us if we’re at range. If we overclock its ability it might backfire.”  
  
No one objects, not even Pidge, and Lance can feel the hesitant acceptance of the theory from her mind. It’s enough that maybe it’s plausible, and they don’t exactly have a lot of other options. Shiro must reach the same conclusion, because he says, “It’s worth a shot. Hunk, form cannon. See if we can break it down from a distance, and then we’ll go in for a close range finish.”  
  
This time the energy surge sways towards the Yellow Lion, as Hunk’s mind gains a little more strength in the overall control of Voltron. Lance can feel Voltron sink ever so slightly as the additional weight of the massive shoulder cannon settles in, and automatically counters with the leg’s thrusters to keep them even. One of his holographic displays changes to a targeting readout for the cannon, although Hunk maintains primary controls of its attack functions. There’s a hum as the cannon charges, sighting straight on the Robeast’s head through the strange yellow barrier, and then it fires.  
  
The energy slams into the shield, and the Robeast rocks back, its long insect-like legs beginning to slide along the ground. And for a moment it seems like they’ll be victorious. The beast’s body bows under the strain of the cannon’s intense blast, and the yellow honeycomb patterns along its shield begin to spark wildly, fluctuating between bright and dull colors as it’s clearly made unstable. Hunk cheers, and Lance can feel the determination and excitement from the rest of the team at the impending win. He can’t blame them. He’s grinning with excitement as well, and cheering out loud over the comms.  
  
But they celebrate their victory too soon. The Robeast’s shield seems to ripple, once, twice, three times, the honeycomb shapes fluctuating oddly. But then the yellow of it seems to brighten, and the shapes become more solid, with sharper, more distinct lines and color. Energy crackles over its surface, large snapping arcs of power that grow steadily bigger with every second. And then those arcs of power seem to reach the breaking point, and they burst outward all around the Robeast. The energy smashes into fields and sets them aflame, digs massive gaping chasms into the ground, scorches trees and earth and leaves smoking craters in its wake. Within seconds it looks as though a bomb has been set off all around the beast, decimating everything within a half mile radius all around it…other than the land just inside the barrier at the Robeast’s feet.  
  
Lance can feel the collective horror of the team, mixing with his own. It was like setting off a small nuke in the middle of peaceful, rolling farmlands; the destruction is incredible, and there’s simply nothing _left._ Thank goodness they’d been fighting the Robeast in the more distant fields—if that blast had occurred anywhere near the Hekkorite towns or villages they would have been decimated instantly. Lance can only hope there were no workers still out in the fields trying to escape when it happened. The thought alone of any of these innocent, pacifistic people in the middle of that blast makes him feel sick to his stomach.  
  
“Stop shooting, our attacks are making that feedback blast stronger!” Pidge yelps, but Hunk is already shutting down the shoulder cannon’s blast. Lance can feel the shift of energy again that means Hunk’s bayard has been removed, and the weight of the shoulder cannon vanishes as it disappears into whatever technological void it goes to until it’s needed again, however _that_ works.  
  
“Guys…is it just me, or does that shield look stronger now?” Keith asks.  
  
“Not just you,” Lance says. Much as he hates to agree with Keith on anything, in this case the red paladin has a point. The shield is definitely brighter now, and where it had just been hexagonal yellow lines before, the interior shapes are now a pale yellow. Lance isn’t the tech expert Hunk or Pidge are, but he’s pretty sure that’s a bad sign.  
  
“We couldn’t overclock it,” Pidge says with a groan. “Looks like it gets reinforced whenever we add more energy to it. And it’ll still disperse any extra energy it doesn’t need, whether we’re there or not. No matter who’s in the way.”  
  
Voltron spins aside as another laser blast fires at them from the Robeast’s tail cannon, and circles the creature. If they can’t get it in the air, they can at least keep it in place until they have a plan, to minimize that kind of blast happening again. “There has to be a solution,” Shiro says, as they skim through the air.  
  
“It doesn’t seem like there’s anything we can do,” Hunk says, voice fretful. “We can’t hit it up close or it’ll damage us, but we can’t hit it from far away or it’ll damage everything around it, and anything we hit it with makes it stronger!”  
  
“It can’t be indestructible. There has to be _something._ ” Shiro is insistent, and Lance can feel his determination and his drive to beat this thing through the link. He recognizes Shiro’s tone all too well—it’s the same one Shiro used the first time they ever formed Voltron, when he refused to give up even though everything seemed lost. Lance feels himself growing marginally less uneasy when he hears it. Shiro has a way of making you feel like you can do anything, even when it’s hopeless, and he has a way of making even the hopeless things happen. Maybe they _can_ win.  
  
“Allura, Coran—have you gotten any good scans of this thing from the Castle?” Shiro asks after a moment. “Can you spot any structural weaknesses— _anything_ we can use?”  
  
“Scanning now,” Coran says, voice crackling and staticky. Their comm link must have been partially damaged by whatever shock blast the Robeast had used on them the first time, Lance muses idly, even as he shoves the control levers and works with Shiro and Hunk to perform a spectacular midair twist to avoid another laser blast. There’s probably a barrel roll joke in there somewhere, but just no time to use it. What a shame.  
  
Allura adds, “We can provide cover, if you need it—“  
  
“Don’t, princess,” Shiro cuts her off immediately. “Stay behind as a defense for the main settlements. Attacking the Robeast with the Castle defenses will only charge that barrier and maybe attract it towards innocent civilians. Keep your distance and only join the fight as a last resort.”  
  
Allura doesn’t answer. Lance has a feeling she’s probably not happy to get told to stay out of the fight, but she’s also smart enough to know Shiro’s got a point. The Castle defenses have saved their hides more than once even in Voltron, but all they’ll do now is supercharge this thing and give it another target.  
  
They dodge and spin through the air, constantly circling and giving the Robeast something to shoot at that _isn’t_ Hekkorite farmlands or settlements. Lance can feel the exhaustion of some of the others starting to slip through the Voltron bonds, and he’s starting to feel tired, too. Maintaining Voltron for this long isn’t easy, especially when it’s all near constant tension and desperately trying to not get shot. Keith’s mind is starting to lag, and Lance can sort of distantly feel that he’s still hurting pretty badly from that shock feedback, although he can also feel that the red paladin is trying his damn hardest to not slow anybody down. Lance can begrudge Keith for many things, but definitely not that. Shiro’s ultimately the one still holding them all together, and Lance can feel everyone’s minds relying more and more heavily on Shiro’s control and determination. But there’s only so long anyone can keep that up, even Shiro. They need to finish this, and soon.  
  
It’s close to five dobashes before Coran’s voice crackles over the comms again. “I’ve got something,” he reports. “That barrier _does_ have a structural weakness. The latticework of energy in those hexagonal patterns is very complex, and actually designed to grow stronger when heavy force is used against it. But there are several weak points where its structural integrity is at its weakest, where the energy flow doesn’t intersect perfectly. Hit one of those points, and the shield’s energy flow will collapse!”  
  
“Great!” Shiro says, and Lance can feel the mental sigh of relief that flows through all of them. “Where are these points?”  
  
“Transmitting data to you now.”  
  
Lance glances at the new holoscreen that pops up hopefully as Coran’s data finishes uploading. There’s a simple illustration of the bubble surrounding the Robeast and the honeycomb shield surrounding it. Six points are indicated on the shield at various intervals, arranged in a hexagonal shape themselves around the diameter of the bubble, and it’s clear that hitting even one of these points will destroy the structural integrity of the shield.  
  
Unfortunately, there’s one drawback. “Is it just me, or are those points _really_ small?” Lance asks, squinting at the readouts.  
  
“Very small,” Pidge confirms grimly. “Like, the size of one of those old smart cars.”  
  
Which wouldn’t be a difficult target to hit if they were human-sized at the moment. But with the scale of Voltron and the Robeast, it was like being asked to hit a quarter-sized target on a human. With the additional caveat that hitting them anywhere else _besides_ that exact target would instantly make them get super powers and go postal.  
  
Not the best odds, there.  
  
The others realize it, too. “My shoulder cannon can’t target that!” Hunk says frantically. “That’s way too tiny, even for the multi-target system! The smallest blast it can manage is still going to hit all the surrounding energy field points too. That will just charge it right back up and set off the shield-bomb thing again!”  
  
He’s not wrong, either, Lance thinks. The shoulder cannon is built for _power_. It’s a lot like Hunk’s bayard that way—it’s not intended to be a tool of finesse, it’s intended to wreak havoc and cover the rest of the team with a lot of strength and a lot of damage. Unfortunately, while that’s a huge asset most of the time, it’s a major weakness here, when that thing is just going to use all that power to charge itself up and wreck the surrounding area instead.  
  
“Nothing for it,” Shiro says grimly. “The shoulder cannon’s out. So are the Red and Green Lions’ laser cannons for the same reason. We can’t risk giving that thing more power.” He hesitates for a moment, and then says with a sigh, “We’re just going to have to try and hit it up close. The sword is our only option. Keith—do you think you can hit it if we can get close enough?”  
  
It’s difficult to tell exactly, but Lance can swear Keith’s mind _wavers_ , just for a second. That’s already a bad sign, because Keith _never_ hesitates when Shiro gives him an order or asks if he’s capable of doing anything, _especially_ if it’s in relation to going for an all out assault. After a moment Keith does answer, voice still hoarse, and he sounds tired. “Yes,” he says shortly. That’s it. And it’s almost hard to catch because it disappears so quickly in the chaos that is the Voltron mental unity, but Lance catches it anyway—the almost imperceptible feeling of dread that flicks from Keith’s mind for the barest fraction of a second, or the feeling that he’s bracing for something painful.  
  
And Lance…Lance _wants_ to snipe at him for being a coward or not being a team player or _something_ , because it would feel normal and like they’re not in the middle of absolute peril, but he just can’t bring himself to. Keith’s already hurting pretty bad from that last attack. They all are, but Keith definitely took the worst of it just from being the one holding the sword, and now he’s being asked to do it again. Because the odds that they’ll hit one of those minuscule points with a huge sword while that thing is shooting and striking at them on the first try are pretty low, and if that first strike fails, another feedback shock comes too. It’ll hurt all of them again, but Keith will be taking the brunt of it once more. And he’ll do it, he’s agreed to it, and Lance knows Keith is the kind of guy who will keep fighting until he’s dead if he believes in the cause, but it’s not going to be pleasant or painless and they already know that going in. It’s not really fair to ask that of him, of any of them, but it’s not like they have any other choice.  
  
Lance grits his teeth. _This isn’t fair,_ he thinks in frustration. _Why does this have to be a Voltron fight? If this were just us fighting I could hit those points easy with my bayard. I’m the ranged guy, this should be something I could handle!_  
  
And as if his Lion hears him, Blue seems to purr inside his mind. The panel to his right rises and snaps open, revealing the circular bayard slot within. And Lance’s eyes widen, because he knows, suddenly, _exactly_ what this means.  
  
“—ow it’ll be rough, but we’ll provide support,” Shiro is saying, already preparing them for the assault. “Keith, just worry about hitting one of those points, and we’ll take care of the rest. As soon as we make impact and strike, we need to focus on getting away before the full force of that feedback hits. Ready?”  
  
The others voice their acknowledgement, and their minds are grim, determined, and a little shaky. The plan is going to hurt everyone and there’s a very low chance of it working. Voltron shifts, and the Red Lion reaches for the Green as though to draw its sword, and—  
  
_“Wait!”_ Lance screeches, both over the comms and in their minds.  
  
Voltron actually startles to a halt from their combined confusion. “Lance,” Shiro says after a moment, “We don’t have time to—“  
  
“No, trust me on this,” Lance cuts him off. “I think my Lion has a better idea. I think she’s telling me to use my bayard.”  
  
There’s a moment of collective shock that filters through all of their minds, and another moment of shock as they suddenly remember where they are and narrowly avoid another laser cannon shot from the Robeast. Once they’ve regained their balance again, Lance can feel Shiro’s mind racing as it considers the new alternative, seconds before he snaps, “Alright, go. Let’s trust the Blue Lion.”  
  
Lance feels a surge of pride and another of gratefulness, all entangled and confused in his mind, and he’s sure it’s probably a little overwhelming for the others. But it doesn’t matter. Shiro trusts him and Blue to get them out of this mess, and Lance feels both excited and nervous by that. He won’t let them down. He and Blue will finish this, and protect the others, no matter what it takes.  
  
Riding high on that determination, Lance summons his bayard, slams it into the circular slot, and twists it until it locks into place.  
  
The effect is immediate, but so different than anything Lance has experienced in Voltron yet. Like whenever Keith or Hunk use their bayards, Lance can feel the shift of energy flowing through Voltron as it adjusts to accommodate both the formation of a new weapon as well as the related mind gaining more strength in the Voltron build. But this time, it’s different, because this time that energy flows towards _him._ He can feel _himself_ gaining more dominance in the Voltron mental hierarchy as it adjusts to accommodate _his_ bayard and _his_ weapon. And he can _feel_ more of Voltron as a whole. Not just the leg he pilots, not just the way his mind connects to the rest of the paladins, but _all of Voltron_. It’s like this makes him a little less of a piece and more of the whole. It’s _weird,_ and it takes his mind a moment to adjust to all the extra input. Hunk and Keith never mentioned anything like this.  
  
And the weapon…the weapon is _gorgeous._  
  
It’s absolutely huge, although not in the same way as Hunk’s shoulder cannon or Keith’s sword. It’s definitely a sniper rifle of some kind, incredibly long and sleek and the same blue shade as the Blue Lion’s hull. The trigger and barrel are somewhat modified compared to a human sniper rifle to accommodate for a lack of fingers and being held in a Lion’s mouth, but otherwise it’s very familiar looking, a little different than Lance’s bayard but not completely unfamiliar. After Hunk’s shoulder cannon, which is designed for pure power and brute force, this thing has an elegance and finesse to it that Lance honestly had never considered a massive robot like Voltron capable of.  
  
This is a weapon built for distance. Lance knows he could probably hit something on the other side of the planet with this sucker if he really felt so inclined. And it’s a weapon built for _precision._ And he knows this is exactly the tool for the job.  
  
He grins, and suddenly feels rewarded for his determination. He feels confident, now. This fight isn’t over yet, but they’re back in the running, and it shouldn’t cost anyone else any further grief.  
  
The others are all exclaiming over the comms now about the new weapon, and Lance can feel their excitement through the Voltron link, although their mental voices feel a little quieter than usual. Maybe that’s because he has more control over Voltron as a whole right now. He’s not really sure. Whatever the case, they’re on board with this new form of attack, and all they need now is to actually take action.  
  
They dodge aside from another laser cannon blast from the Robeast, and Lance focuses on the task at hand now. The Voltron rifle doesn’t have a scope, but one of Lance’s holographic readouts appears to be functioning as a targeting system, similar to Hunk’s, and fills the same function. Lance can tell the others can see it as well, even if he has control over what it actually targets.  
  
“Okay guys, work with me on this one,” Lance says. There’s confidence in his tone and in his head, and he knows the others can see it and feel it. “Just follow my lead and we’ll take this ugly bug down.”  
  
He’s already beginning to focus on aiming as he speaks, adjusting the targeting on his holoscreen to aim for one of the weak points in Coran’s data upload. He can already feel his mind settling into a supremely focused state as he adjusts his aim. He actually _feels_ Shiro’s mind, normally the foremost in control, ease back and give him leeway, and he feels the others’ minds almost step aside and get out of his way. He feels Voltron start to adjust the rifle to aim, feels the Red and Green Lions working in tandem with him to aim as he extends even farther outside of himself and Blue.  
  
There’s no one in his way mentally, and they’ve all gone quiet. Distantly Lance can feel their minds peripherally, on the edge of his focus, like they’re looking in and watching what he’s doing, but it’s starting to become unimportant. He goes deeper. Finds himself acutely aware of his own heartbeats, his own breaths. Voltron might not have a heart to beat, might not have breaths to interfere with a perfect moment to fire. But it’s all about the meditation, the focus, the intensity of knowing exactly when he has the shot, and he lets it happen.  
  
He breathes. In. Out. His heart slows, and pounds, and he counts each _thud,_ counts the stillness between each beat. He can see the target, the minuscule, infinitesimally small pinprick that is a weak point in the Robeast’s armor, and he feels like laughing to himself because it almost seems too _easy,_ now. He’s aware, very distantly, of Hunk yelling a warning, that the Robeast is firing again, that they need to dodge. But Lance doesn’t move, and the others don’t disturb him.  
  
In fact, they _help._ Because in one, sudden moment of realization, Lance realizes they haven’t just been watching his mind at work—they’ve been adjusting to it. In one, sudden tick, Lance realizes every single one of their five heartbeats is in perfect sync; every breath is identical; every moment of pure stillness happens at the _exact_ same second.  
  
This _is_ Voltron’s heart, Voltron’s breath, Voltron’s focus. In that one crystal clear moment they are in absolute, perfect synchronization. In that one absolute moment, Lance _is_ Voltron, and in that one moment, he has the shot.  
  
In that moment of absolute stillness between all of them, they fire.  
  
In that same moment, so does the Robeast.  
  
But the disgusting creature’s attack can’t compare to the absolute perfection that is Voltron’s. Voltron’s rifle fires a single, condensed shot of blue-white energy, and it shears clean through the Robeast’s blast, dispersing that opposing energy into the air in a flurry of sparks and explosions. The rifle shot isn’t even slowed, and rockets down through the air at a stunning speed to smash directly into the closest weak point on the Robeast’s barrier.  
  
The effect is instant. The Robeast’s strange honeycomb shield doesn’t just collapse—it _shatters_ , cracking apart at each of its geometric points into a hundred thousand pieces of energy and sending a blast of wind radiating outward for miles.  
  
And it doesn’t stop there. Lance can hear the roaring crackle of energy that signifies the shield’s feedback, and for a moment he and the rest of Team Voltron brace for destruction. But that shock feedback doesn’t roll outward towards the Hekkorite farmlands as they anticipate. Instead, as the shield collapses, its energy collapses as well, and all that power strikes at the creature hiding inside, the closest possible target it can find. The Robeast lets out a clicking, hissing noise as it’s struck with its own defensive attack, and Lance can see tiny bursts of explosions all along its body as things start breaking down. It’s almost too bright to look at, really, but the paladin visor and hyper-focused vision from Blue’s scope mode shield his eyes enough for him to make out the details.  
  
By the time it’s all over and the crackling energy finally disperses, the Robeast is looking a lot worse for wear. The shield is gone, and the earth at its feet is scorched black where its insectoid limbs drag awkwardly. Both of its pincer claws hang, twitching and sparking as it struggles to lift them. The tail cannon drags along the ground as well, the end shattered beyond repair. It manages to lift its diamond-shaped head towards them, but it’s clearly an effort to do so, and it shakes and grinds with an ear-bleeding screech every time it so much as moves.  
  
“Nice job, Lance!” Shiro praises, and Lance can _feel_ the surge of pride for him from Shiro’s mind, enough to know that praise is genuine and heartfelt. Lance can’t stop himself from grinning. He’d done spectacularly, and Shiro _knew_ it. It felt good to be needed.  
  
“Hurry, before it regains ground,” Shiro adds a second later, switching back to leading on a dime. “Form sword, close in, and take it down before it can counter!”  
  
Lance obligingly twists his bayard free as Keith swaps weapons with him. It’s almost sad to see the rifle go—it had really been a beauty—but he knows it’s right here in his hand if they ever need it again.  
  
It feels strange for his mind to sink back down to just being a piece of Voltron instead of being the whole of it, and everyone is louder in his head again, more equal. But this is familiar, and Lance can accept it. He finds himself adjusting just like he always does as Keith’s mind takes the forefront and wields the sword. It doesn’t matter as much to Lance anymore—now he knows he’s got a cool weapon too, and he just saved all of them, _including_ Keith, on top of it.  
  
And if he does say so himself, Blue’s sniper rifle is way cooler than Keith’s boring old sword.  
  
They blast down out of the sky towards the Robeast with the blazing sword at the ready, and Lance and Hunk mentally work together to kick the thrusters to full at the exact right moment to do maximum damage. The Robeast tries to turn to counter with a series of mechanical screeches as its broken body grinds and shakes, but it’s too late to save itself or strike out. Voltron’s sword slashes through its body, and they dart up into the sky again just in time to miss the last explosion as the Robeast’s head and thorax finally explode. Its long, insect limbs collapse to the charred earth as it stops moving, and the remainder of the yellow glow visible through the chinks in its metal carapace flickers once before gradually fading into nothing.  
  
Voltron twists once to observe its work, and the paladins cheer over the comms as Allura cries delightedly, “You did it!” Lance can feel the chaos of the Voltron link reaching its peak as everyone’s thoughts go a million miles a minute, intertwining and running over each other and sharing almost too fast to follow, and it’s a confusing but not unwelcome mental cacophony of _excitement-awe-impressed-relieved-victorious-happy-tired-satisfied-proud_ and so, so much more.  
  
It’s actually the comm link, then, that catches Lance’s attention; even the shouting is less of a wild mess than the twisting noise of _thoughts._ “Lance,” Keith says, voice still hoarse, “Thanks. You and Blue really came through.” He sounds tired, and maybe like he’s still working off a little residual pain, but he also sounds like he actually means it. Gratitude and praise both don’t come lightly from Keith. Lance is genuinely impressed.  
  
Impressed, but not _quite_ impressed enough to not rub it in his face. “What’s that?” Lance drawls, smirking. “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite _hear_ that, Keith, what was that?”  
  
He doesn’t have a visual feed on Keith, but he can practically _hear_ the red paladin scowling. “You heard me.”  
  
“Just wanted to make sure we _all_ heard Keith praising me for being the most badass and reliable and generally _awesome_ paladin on the team,” Lance says, grin growing wider.  
  
He can actually feel Keith’s indignation. _“That’s not what I—“_  
  
_“All right,”_ Shiro intervenes, and Lance feels _just_ enough sternness through the Voltron link to know it’s time to knock it off, but not _so_ much that he can tell Shiro’s amused and not really angry, just trying to defuse everything before it gets too crazy. “Good job, everyone. That’s another Robeast down, and we were able to keep the damage contained to one area, at least. Let’s disperse, meet up with the Castle, and see if we can do anything to help the Hekkorites fix their fields that we _did_ wreck.”  
  
They break apart as ordered, and Lance can’t help but do a little victory loop in Blue once they’re on their own again, before soaring for the Castle of Lions. They’d done well today. He’d held his own in that fight and come through when they needed him most, Shiro had acknowledged his skills, and even _Keith_ had thanked him for saving his ass. Yeah, today was definitely a good day.  
  
He forms his bayard in his hand again as they fly, and glances at if fondly. “Who’d’ve thought you could make an awesome weapon like that,” he muses out loud. “You really came through for me. Thanks, Beautiful.”  
  
He can feel Blue purring in his mind again in answer, pleased and content.  
  
“What does that make us then, huh?” Lance says out loud to her. “The ranged guy? The sniper? Team sharpshooter?”  
  
Hm. Team Sharpshooter. Yeah, that one. That _definitely_ has a nice ring to it.

**Author's Note:**

> While I ADORED S2, one of the things I was bitterly disappointed about was that neither Lance nor Pidge got to show us what their bayards would do individually to create a weapon for Voltron. If they even can. All the paladins used their bayards in Voltron this season but it was specifically to power up Keith’s weapon. 
> 
> I also wanted a reason for Lance to believe he was the team sharpshooter, because he seemed disappointed nobody thought it, but he didn't actually do any sharpshooting in S1 or early S2 of note, so...why would he think that?
> 
> Y'know what they say! Fix it wtih fanfic. /applies fanfic bandaid


End file.
